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Juan Nagel

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro shut down a piece of the border with Colombia a few days ago. Not happy with that, he has begun rounding up Colombian citizens and expelling them from the country, no questions asked. Their homes are being torn down. Maduro claims he is the victim of drug smugglers and paramilitaries. However, the…

“Who comes from Colombia to Venezuela? These are people who come with no education, without a penny in their pocket, it’s the poor who come fleeing … Venezuela has become a magnet, a guarantee for social rights for the Colombian people. I have to say it, and I ask for your understanding … I don’t offend Colombia…

Before Julio Coco. Before Irene Saez, and El Conde del Guácharo, and Luis Chataing. Before Hugo Chávez himself, there was Renny. Renny Ottolina was the ultimate political outsider. A cross between Ed Sullivan and Jon Stewart, Renny was a fixture in Venezuelan TV for much of the 1960s and 1970s. In the middle of that decade,…

Nothing Leopoldo López says in this clandestine video is new. But hearing the conviction in his voice, clinging to the bars on his window, is more powerful than anything he says. (Note: the video appears to be old, but it has only recently been released)

Starting today, I will no longer be the main editor of Caracas Chronicles. For the past few weeks, several of us who write for the blog have concluded that Caracas Chronicles has become a brand that deserves a look and a content befitting its reputation. This calls for the blog to undergo some major, exciting changes. I…

Good old Maria Corina Machado. Today she was not allowed to register her candidacy due to the government’s push to have her barred from public office. So, instead, she announced that her replacement candidate would be Sociologist Isabel Pereira. I didn’t know much about Pereira before today, but from the looks of it, she brings…

The recent decision by Venezuela’s Supreme Tribunal, ordering Copei to put in place a board consisting of people they selected, presents a difficult conundrum for the opposition coalition, the MUD. The key thing here is that the Supreme Tribunal has ordered the Elections Council to only accept the roster of candidates the new Copei board proposes. Indirectly,…